
The Ultimate Guide to Promoting Your Art on Instagram
Instagram is one of the best platforms for creatives to share artwork with the world. Whether you are a grizzled Insta veteran or live under a social medialess rock (both are wonderful choices), there are a few pro-tips worth knowing. This guide will help you solidify your brand, engage your fanbase, and learn how to utilize the freshest tools on Instagram.
Think About Your Brand
Your Instagram profile is both an extension of your art and a modern day portfolio. It’s an opportunity to apply your unique style to the visual content, tone of each caption, and the overall visual consistency.
The final drafts of your artwork may be the crown jewels on your feed, but people also love to see progress shots, your favorite tools, what your shop looks like, and general behind the scenes stuff.
And if you’re thinking big picture, consider strategically placing your posts into a stylistic grid like squares, mix, rows, tiles, or puzzle format. If color is your thing, try playing with specific filters and color pallets or a rainbow feed to reinforce your brand.
The most important thing to keep in mind when curating your feed is consistency. Daily activity increases visibility for your art and gives your fans more opportunities to engage. If you’re a tried and true Type B and planning an Instagram feed sounds soul destroying, consider using tools like Later and Buffer to pre-plan your posts.
Engage Your Followers
Instagram is built around community, which makes it really easy to authentically connect with your fans. We know you want to spend the majority of your time making art, but a little investment in social media goes a long way to grow your audience.
Engage your current followers by writing interesting captions and replying to DMs and comments. Connect with new followers by using great hashtags that pull the best matches for you out of the 1 billion daily active users on Instagram. 1 billion! Yeah, your potential fanbase is practically limitless.
Identify what sets you apart and feature that. If you frequently use a cool watercolor technique, offer a tutorial on how to do it. If your shop looks like it belongs on a Pinterest board, share tips on keeping things organized. If you like to keep things totally open ended, host an Ask Me Anything forum. And if teamwork makes your dream work, collaborate with another artist or product that you love.
Shop Talk
What is an ultimate Instagram guide without a little housekeeping? Stick with us! Just like your Redbubble shop, Instagram images look best when post dimensions are optimized for the platform. Here is the Instagram sizing rundown:
Images:
- 1080px by 1080px (Square)
- 1080px by 1350px (Portrait)
- 1080px by 608px (Landscape)
Stories:
- 1080 x 1920px (Portrait)
- 1080 x 608 (Landscape)
Videos:
- 1080 x 1350px (Portrait)
- 1080 x 608px (Landscape)
If you’re more of a visual learner, check this super helpful infographic.
Instagram Profiles from Chantal Horeis and Franckreporter
Use Instagram Stories and Save Them as Highlights
We love talking about ways to feature your art with Instagram stories. If you haven’t already jumped on the stories and story highlights train, then all aboard!
Stories hosts temporary post for 24 hours. And the tool is packed with fun design and engagement features like polls, voting, boomerangs, superzoom, rewind, and stop-motion posts.
The stories that are too good to slip into the void after 24 hours can be added to your highlights reel. The highlight reel is more than a storage unit for great stories. It’s positioned at the top of your account where you can strategically categorize and feature great posts.
Have Fun
Are you feeling confident in your ability to promote your art on Instagram? Excellent, we knew you’d do great! Just like any other creative endeavor, it’s a process to curate your brand, engage with your audience, and learn to use tools properly. But we promise, it’s worth it.
For more inspiration check out the must-follow Instagram accounts of Redbubble artists papercanoe, Jonas Wellin, Frank Moth, and Jess Marie.
Blog Header Image: Connected by Missy Peña